Gain up,master down,or is it the other way around? (heh that rhymes)

[squire5]

Just came into possession of a little Warwick Gnome amp and it just got me thinking.I usually use the gain up high and control overall volume with the Master,Is this the right way?Is there any advantage in trying it vice-versa?You know gain low,master high?Or is it a personal thing?

[gjones]

My understanding is that if your amp is digital then you keep the gain down and the master up full. Digital amps are supposed to be noiseless so even with the master up full there should be no hiss. You then use the gain as a volume.  If it's analogue it's the other way around to prevent hiss.

 

Personally, with my digital amps, I just treat them like they were analogue. None of them have any tube overdrive and I have a clean sound, so it doesn't really matter.

[SimonK]

Presuming you are meaning pre-amp gain vs power amp volume on an amp they are quite different things. For me the main "simple explanation" is that gain affects tone and ultimately drive/clipping used as an effect, whereas master volume just makes it louder or quieter*. Sometimes if the input signal is really low you can turn the gain up full without any appreciable difference in tone.

 

I find the easiest way to think about it is to compare to mixing desks where gain is about balancing input levels to stop clipping and ensure levels are roughly equivalent between channels. Gain controls are often used alongside compressors to try to keep peaks no higher than about 3dB.

 

*edit - except with tube poweramps when you get lovely poweramp distortion - but digital/solid state amps as most bass amps are shouldn't do this!

Edited May 2 by SimonK

[jrixn1]

From the manual:

 

 

 

[SimonK]

2 minutes ago, jrixn1 said:

From the manual:

 

 

 

 

That's fun - they've tried to make it "idiot proof" as clearly they haven't designed it to distort musically, whereas in many older tube amps that is precisely what you pay big bucks for!

[squire5]

After years of using an old school backline setup,my main aim was being loud enough to hear onstage.I never paid much attention to amp settings on my TE amp with 4x10 and 1x15 cabs.I was never into distortion or even effects for that matter.Its just something I noticed recently and thought 'is it that important?' I'm retired from live gigs now and am just using the Gnome for bedroom practice along with a Laney 1x15 cab.Cheers for the input.

[SimonK]

If there is a built in compressor on the gain to prevent clipping if set too high, there definitely will be a difference between the two controls as you will get a more compressed (and thus dynamically consistent) signal with the gain set too high so as to avoid what would presumably be not very musical distortion. So for this amp I would use the signal LED to find the "Goldilocks position" (not too hot, not too cold), and then use the master for the main volume - unless I particulary liked lots of whatever compression it happens to give!

[Baloney Balderdash]

20 hours ago, gjones said:

My understanding is that if your amp is digital then you keep the gain down and the master up full. Digital amps are supposed to be noiseless so even with the master up full there should be no hiss. You then use the gain as a volume.  If it's analogue it's the other way around to prevent hiss.

 

Personally, with my digital amps, I just treat them like they were analogue. None of them have any tube overdrive and I have a clean sound, so it doesn't really matter.

Do you mean Class D amp?

 

Cause those are fully analog.

 

The D does not stand for Digital, just like Class A doesn't stand for Analog, or Class B doesn't stand for Bass.

 

And there is no such thing as a digital poweramp.

 

Edited May 3 by Baloney Balderdash

[JPJ]

20 hours ago, jrixn1 said:

From the manual:

 

 

 

Killjoy! Who reads the manual 🤷‍♂️🤣

[squire5]

Another thing I've noticed today.When I took the Gnome to a recording session and used the DI out XLR,the body of the amp remained much much cooler than when I'm using it at home connected via the 1/4 inch jack to a 1x15 cabinet (8 ohm).when it gets noticeably hotter.Is this normal?

[tauzero]

Probably, when it's working as a DI box and not a power amp it's not passing anywhere near as much current so it won't get warm.

[squire5]

Makes sense mate.Thanx.

[Nos]

I found on My Warwick gnome by running the gain up higher makes a punchier overall tone, then I set the master volume to get the sound level I need, so depending how punchy I want the tone I'll adjust accordingly (don't know a better way to describe it but hopefully it makes sense)

[tinyd]

On 13/05/2024 at 18:48, Nos said:

I found on My Warwick gnome by running the gain up higher makes a punchier overall tone, then I set the master volume to get the sound level I need, so depending how punchy I want the tone I'll adjust accordingly (don't know a better way to describe it but hopefully it makes sense)

Yep, I've found this as well - in my case I'm using it for DB so I want a less punchy tone, so I'm keeping gain down to less than half way (this isn't close to causing the compression to kick in) and using master to control overall volume. 

[squire5]

I've found,through trial and error that the combination you guys mention is the best overall.Theres definitely a punchier sound with the gain about 12 o clock and just using the Master to control overall volume.I find I'm having to keep the bass control at about 2 o clock to get decent bass.Im using the amp through a 1 x 15 Laney cab with Mids at about 9 o clock.What settings do you guys use? Bass is a HB MM 5 string clone.